Collegen Implants May Help to Restore Eyesight

Corneal Damage results in hundred of people losing their site each year. It is currently treated by implanting corneas from human donors, which as you can imagine are in very short supply.
Most potential donors, hesistate when asked if they would like to donate their corneas. Understandable, I suppose.The idea that the eyes are the window to the soul predate Cicero. Even to this day, we close the eyes of an individual who has just passed, it stems from the idea that evil spirits may enter the corpse through the eyes. No one ever has to look at their kidneys or their liver in the mirror so does it matter if it removed after their death? But the eyes? Imagine going into a coffee shop only to look into the eyes of your barista and see
eyes as your dead spouse peering out of a strangers face. Somewhat disturbing to say the least.
Its perhaps why May Griffiths and her colleauges at the Linköping University in Sweden have been trying to find an alternative to traditional cornea transplants which usually result in an unsightly -no pun intended- prosthesis, resembling a pinhole camera. Recent tests have resulted in six test subjects having had their sight restored using collagen implants. Griffiths and her colleagues made the replacement corneas from collegan moulded into the shape and size of a natural human cornea. These where then insertedn into the eyes of ten individuals with seriously blurred vision resulting from corneal damade. The corneas where held in place with temporary sutures across the impant and all subjects of the trail where put on immunosuppressants for six weeks to prevent the impant from being rejected.
After two years the collegan implants had become filled with the patients' own cells anchoring them to the eye, nerves grew across the cornea, which is important for cell survival and allowed the eyes to maintain the blink response.
Of the ten, six have now had their vision restored. The remaining foru were left with a visual haze, a result of scarring from the sutures. While the project is still in its infancy it shows great promise for the future. It's also arguabley a more worthwhile and benifical useage of collegen then the standard lip implants for which we tend to associate it.